The inaugural issue of the Journal of Social Research and Policy is out, including Maarten Berg (Erasmus): Death Penalty and Happiness in States: Was Jeremy Bentham Right?; and Ramona Stone and Sarah Hendrix (Kentucky): Evaluation of an Initiative to Reduce Youth Alcohol Abuse in the “Bourbon Country” of Kentucky. Still Timely: The Lonely Crowd, David Riesman's classic book on the American character, was controversial but prescient. John McWhorter on the evolution of black people on television. Singularity University tries to breed world leaders by immersing students in futuristic concepts; Nicola Jones finds it a heady mix of grand claims, brilliant minds and cool gadgets. The un-reluctant fundamentalist: Michelle Goldberg reviews Nomad: From Islam to America: A Personal Journey Through the Clash of Civilizations by Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Alan Wolfe reviews The Quest for Community: A Study in the Ethics of Order and Freedom by Robert Nisbet. From Edge, here is a statement of consensus reached among participants at the New Science of Morality Conference. Is Obama the Antichrist? Shankar Vedantam on why we believe propaganda. What’s wrong with boycotts: We love to organize them at the first sniff of corporate misbehavior, but are they really the right move? In Karachi, youth culture was Foreign — the privileged among us could visit it, but none of us could live there. A review of Aristocrats: Power, Grace, and Decadence: Britain's Great Ruling Classes from 1066 to the Present by Lawrence James. Atlas Obscura visits Palmyra, a mysterious lost empire of the Silk Road.
